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Bruce Whitfield writes that last year there was an almost unprecedented changing of the guard at the top of high-profile SA companies. Nearly 50 CEOs of publicly listed, state-owned and public interest companies left their jobs over the past 14 months.
It was, in short, a talent rout, as business confidence slumped to its worst levels since PW Botha’s Rubicon speech of 1985. About 10% of the JSE’s 360 listed companies underwent change at the top. Some were nudged, some were pushed and others ran screaming. At least one resisted every effort to leave the corner office quietly, refusing to conform with the unwritten code of CEOs everywhere — know when your time is up. There were breakdowns, meltdowns, a couple of retirements, some went "to spend more time with their families", and there was a worrying exodus due to emigration. While some boards chose to use the opportunity to bring in CEOs with a "new broom" mandate to clean up the mess left by their predecessors, not all have chosen to use the economic downturn to properly re-engineer the firms in their care. Whitfield goes on to examine the CEO departures and replacement strategies at Tiger Brands, Massmart, EOH, Steinhoff, Altron, Eskom, Tongaat Hulett, Sasol, Old Mutual, Walmart and Woolworths. He concludes that contrasting strategies have been adopted by SA’s largest companies to replace CEOs rushing for the door. He notes that in five years’ time, we’ll know which plan worked.
- Read more of Whitfield’s article at SA Labour News
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